Antara News·Indonesia·Thursday, August 20, 2026 at 11:56 AM

Indonesia denies US allegations of transshipment fraud

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Arnidhya Nur, Resinta Sulistiyandari

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government has denied allegations of a transshipment scam by the United States (US), following the White House's report "The Great Transshipment Scam."

"We can confirm that these are false allegations," Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said at a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

He added that the study was based on assumptions and differed from the actual situation.

The US report, "The Great Transshipment Scam," accused several countries, including Indonesia, of assisting China in evading tariffs. The report stated that transshipment, or the diversion of shipments, occurred primarily in countries with major ports.

The 24-page document accused Chinese exporters of exploiting repackaging practices and falsely claiming the country of origin of goods through Indonesia and dozens of other countries to obtain lower tariffs.

The report referred to this practice as "China's Shadow Transshipment Network."

Furthermore, the report categorizes Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam into "Tier 2."

This category covers countries that Washington considers to have “significant transshipment volumes, along with deeper integration into supply chains and raw material sources linked to China.”

"Indonesia was never involved in or informed of this study. Indonesia is accused, along with Brazil, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam, of being involved in transshipment," Hartarto remarked.

Furthermore, the US also highlighted the increased activity of goods linked to China, particularly plastic boxes and containers in the Bekasi-Batam corridor.

"Indonesia is placed in Tier 2, which is integrated with China and exports to the United States, particularly for plastic products and their derivatives," the minister continued.

He added that the report mentioned the Batam and Bekasi access network, but noted that the industrial areas in both locations had been established since the 1990s. He explained that most industries there are in the manufacturing sector, while the plastic and packaging industries are largely owned by domestic companies.

Moreover, he mentioned that Indonesia already has its own raw materials for plastic, produced by Chandra Asri and Lotte Chemicals.

"So, it is not true that transshipment from other countries is being used for processing. Second, most of the plastic packaging is either used domestically or exported to other nearby markets, but not to the United States," Hartarto emphasized.

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